rotten apple

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

I have a confession to make...I've never danced ALL my life. So this time I decided to give it a shot.We have a programme coming up and the dance performance is a part of it. And believe me...it required a lot of courage on my part to go ahead with it. I have spent a lot of days watching people having fun dancing. I've been amazed at how people who don't really have the moves, shed all inhibitions on the dance floor. I thought there could be two reasons for them to do this- 1.They have no idea that they are terrible dancers; 2. They may be aware that they are no good but they don't care what people think as long as they are having fun. Which is very noble. Especially so for me because I was always too conscious of how I would look. For all this while I've been convinced I have 2 left feet. Not anymore. Now I enjoy dancing so much I can't understand what it was that kept me from it all this while. It has also reiterated the fact that when one really wants to do something not much is out of reach. How true! How true! I am now having the time of my life! To anybody and everybody out there, some unsolicited advice- if your convinced you have 2 left feet, just give it a shot. You will be surprised at what you can do.

I don't suppose it will ever be possible for me to be a constant blogger. I would say persistence is not one of my strengths, but that would be untrue. Writing is something that comes to me with time and season. When I'm not up to it, I'd rather not waste my time trying.I have received a very poor response to the poll on the author who handles humour best. However there has been a result - P.G. Wodehouse. I'm not entirely surprised.I believe I'm up to writing again ( as long as Father Time permits it). So here's to another ( undoubtedly one of many more) comeback!Alright then fellows...I must end with...PIP PIP!!!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Hark! The pitiable, patronizingAnd the tortured, tormentedExperience and agespeak not of wisdomAnd what of the trappings of faith?Delivering beliefs,not rational to begin with,And expecting complete transedence.Wanting what's passed-no room for the future?Enforcing beliefs,blindly followed-but not by the unaffected.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

I was recently embroiled in what one could call a terrifying experience.On my way home after a long day,at about 7 pm, I had the misfortune of getting into a train headed to Titwala, on the Central railway line. What happened next is a sheer mix of the crazy, the wild, and the humorous. While trying to find a place for my feet, I was obstructed by a woman in her forties who stood at the entrance to the seating area. She cockily told me to keep my leg to myself,while she stood like a pillar, neither here nor there. I asked her why she couldn't make up her mind then. That must have bruised her ego because she may not have expected anyone to react strongly to her complaints which were directed at a couple of people around her. She then shifted in. I desperately needed to place my heavy-as-a-rock rucksack on the luggage rack. As I attempted to do so, horror of horrors, it hit the same woman on the side of her head. I immediately apologized and I sincerely felt it. But what happened next made me wonder why I didn't actually, purposefully knock her out in the first place. The woman was speaking on the phone and started complaining aloud about the youth of today, how they have lost all sense of respect for elders (she had been complaining to a girl to move, to a woman to move her bag, in no polite tones, just a minute ago).She now turned to me and said that I had been a bother ever since I entered the train and...well , let's not get into that.
Soon she told me, 'Why did you hit me with your bag?' And then she HIT ME IN MY FACE. That was it. All hell broke loose.'What did you hit me for ?', I bellowed. All she did was go on about how bad-tempered and ill-mannered the young are and how we are all good for nothing. And she jabbed me in the face.This happened FOUR times.I hit her twice on the arm to push her off. She was all ready for a fight.I did'nt care. She had punched me, jabbed me in the face, and was now announcing her analysis of my behavioural problems to the whole compartment. All I kept saying was, why hit me in the face? She had no right to do that. And the cake- she was receiving support from a few women. Someone told me in marathi (rather shouted out, with the most disgusting expletives interspersed) ,'why are you hitting an older woman?' I couldn't believe I was expected to shut up and take on a beating I didn't deserve because an older woman was involved. I kept quite for a while on the advice of another woman, because there was really no chance of reasoning with my tormentor. For the next 5 minutes the commuters got a free lecture on the degeneration of the youth.She got the thumbs up from another woman who said this was the only way to teach us people and she was doing the right thing. I just raised an eyebrow. Aah...the icing on the cake...the woman said she hoped I would realize my 'mistake' and feel ashamed, and she would 'pray for the evil to leave my soul' (!) (sic)
There's a lot I've left out here. (And to think, all this happened within a span of 15 minutes). This incident gave me much to think about. And the lack of support hurt. Because even though I may not have been absolutely right, I was definitely not wrong.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have been so taken in by the appearance of a book jacket or by the sheer number of recommendations and honours awarded to a book, that you have picked it up at the first instance you could and then have been so absolutely disappointed with the content that you have wanted to sue people and get your money back,and then been even more frustrated at the fact that that is not to be? Well,you might think that I have faced this peculiar situation several times considering how I wax not-so-eloquently on it.However, I have been lucky that the books which fall in this category have either been borrowed or issued from the library and have not been paid for from my miniscule pocket. Nonetheless,good,kind soul that I am, I wish to tell you of these literary horrors,to save you the intellectual torture that I went through. I'm not sure of what I would place at the top of the list.Seriously, how do you distinguish between 2 equally dreadful books? Anyways....

1.THE DEAD SCHOOL-PATRICK McCABEWhat is this book about? The degeneration of a school. The jacket proclaims something on the lines of - by the author of Butcher Boy-some great masterpiece going by the allusion.A more appropriate title would have been-The Dead Book.

2.THE LITTLE WHITE HORSE-ELIZABETH GOUDGE/GOUD/GOUGE.The book itself was forgettable.Why bother remembering the name of the author? This sweet-as-sugar saga was actually recommended by J.K.Rowling.I suspect she was blackmailed into commenting on it.

3.THE TRIAL-FRANZ KAFKAI have already stated exactly what I think of this book.I would rather not remember it.

P.S. I can't seem to remember the others.Perhaps they are truly forgetable.I will make sure I add to the list as soon as my memory discontinues eluding me.

P.S.2. I hit myself on the head on re-reading the prior post, having realised that I had done something close to blasphemous- I had failed to mention the short stories of Isaac Asimov.Asimov,whom I have blogged on before,is a genius in a class of his own.He has covered practically every genre that one can think of ( of course not considering graphic novels or say,poetry). 'MAGIC', a collection of some of his unpublished short stories, circulated posthomously, has several delightful pieces to offer.RECOMMENDED.

Monday, August 27, 2007

I have been wanting to write on books and authors for a really long time, self-confessed bookworm that I am.While thinking of an appropriate idea in this area that I can enjoy blogging on, I have written on this, that and the other.I have now decided to post EVERY ONE of these ideas.Starting with short stories.I confess, initially all I cared about were novels and mini-epics, the thicker the better. But that was before I encountered the works of that crazy,crazy man-ROALD DAHL. This is one author who changed my opinion on short stories forever. Ranging from the smart to the quirky, the strange to the twerpy, his works had me hooked from the word go. Once I started reading his works I could'nt rest until I'd tried them all. Be it the adventures of wild Uncle O or Dahl's perception of the senses, there is always something intriguing and engaging to look forward to. SKIN,TASTE,PIG..... are a few single word titles for his short stories that are thought-inducing on their own. And just when I'd thought I'd seen all there was as far as short stories are concerned, I encountered SAKI. Saki's stories are in a way, quite twisted. There is a more or less persisting undercurrent of horror in most of his stories, if not all. But this horror is subtle and yet chilling. Then again there is the book 'Intepreter of Maladies' by Jhumpa Lahiri. Contrary to my expectations, this book was nothing short of a disappointment. I failed to see what she was trying to get at. ( Perhaps this is a result of my thick-headedness, but most of the award-winning novellas fail to capture my imagination). Another author I can bring up in this regard is Virginia Woolf. My one attempt at a story of hers,titled RAIN, could not impress me. Perhaps I just picked the wrong story. Perhaps I truly am thick-headed. Alright again, I'll give it another shot. Any recommendations?

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'The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy.Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.' - John Gardner

'I'd rather be hated for who I am than be loved for who I'm not. Pretending to be someone else is a waste of who you are.'-Kurt Cobain

'The real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it.' -Anne O Hare McCormick

'Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is the countenance of all science.' -William Wordsworth

'The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun dissipated.When they are concentrated,they illumine.' -Swami Vivekananda

'...After that the Head's friends saw that the Head(of the school) was no use as a Head,so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads.And when they found she wasn't much good even at that,they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after.' -from book 6(The Silver Chair) of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis

...'the terror of society which is the basis of morals,the terror of God,which is the secret of religion...' -Lord Henry Wotton in Oscar Wilde's: 'The Picture Of Dorian Gray'

'...What sort of story?'
'One just true enough to be interesting and not true enough to be tiresome.'
-Saki